Any business owner will eventually be faced with one unfortunate fact: sometimes employees, even highly talented ones, leave the organization. Occasionally, there isn’t much you can do about it. An employee might change interests, have personal circumstances that necessitate a change of pace, or want to change careers altogether. However, the sad fact is that in today’s world, many employees leave simply because of poor management, leadership, or culture. A high turnover rate can spell disaster for a business if it is allowed to spiral out of control, so it is important to make sure that you hold onto your best employees. Here are four ways to make sure that your good workers aren’t walking towards the door:
1) Don’t overwork them. While it is understandable that you want your best workers to handle the most work, there is absolutely nothing that burns out an employee more than feeling as if they’re being punished for doing a good job. It’s confusing to them and counterproductive to the organization as a whole. When an employee is forced to work fifty-plus hour work weeks, their productivity drops off so much that you actually don’t get anything out of them. If you absolutely must increase an employee’s workload, be prepared to increase their status as well. Give them raises, promotions, and title changes as necessary.
2) Show that you actually care about your employees. Everybody likes to be recognized, so don’t underestimate the power of praise and fostering good working relationships. You need to figure out what makes your employees tick and feel good about themselves, then reward them for doing a good job. It’s important to stay human in the eyes of your workers; don’t make someone work eight-hour days if all you care about is productivity and profits. Celebrate successes and try to really connect with your team.
3) Engage and challenge your workers. Talented employees are passionate and want to improve upon everything that they work on. Let them! If you take away their innate desire to change and improve, your employees will feel limited and their passion will wane. Better yet, try to encourage them by finding ways to expand their skill set. Challenge them to do better, push them out of their comfort zone, and make sure that they don’t get bored nor complacent in their roles. Constant engagement shows passion and that you care!
4) Make sure that you are hiring and promoting the correct people. Innovative people want to work with other innovative people, and if you aren’t doing your job and hiring talented people, it can be a major pain for the people under you. No one wants to have to work with someone who needs their hand held throughout the day, so hire people that you know will work well and collaborate with your current staff. If you neglect to do this, your best employees will eventually get tired of sub-par coworkers. Poor managers take this even farther and actually promote the wrong people to higher positions. This is downright insulting to the employees who have been working themselves ragged, only to be passed over by someone who isn’t pulling their weight. Promote the people that actually want to work with you!
At DeSantis Trusted Advisers, we work with clients every day to ensure that they maintain a culture and a management approach that engenders loyalty in the workplace and that they are able to retain their most important asset, their human capital.
